Hey! Remember me? It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. We recently finished our first year of homeschooling and then immediately began our busy summer swim team schedule. Add to that all the minutiae of everyday life, and well, things have been really busy lately in our neck of the woods!

Summer is my time to tackle big projects around the house. Gerald would disagree. Ask him and he would say that I assign him the big (outdoor) projects whenever we are getting ready to host a party. True enough. But as far as the indoor jobs go, I prefer to wait until summer when it's too hot to go outside anyway. And believe me, I have a list of UFO's (unfinished objects) as long as my arm!

Jewell is at camp this week, so I decided to tackle her room first. I am nearly done and plan on sharing the finished redo soon, but today, I want to tell you about a product that I ABSOLUTELY love!

Many of you have heard of Annie Sloan chalk paint. I've seen it around for a number of years. I also know that it is sometimes difficult to find and can be expensive. A friend of mine recently opened a store in Montgomery with her daughter. It's called Quite the Pair. Owners Adrienne Bell and Rebecca Jo Hall have put together a beautiful showroom full of jewelry, clothing and home interiors. It has a decisively Southern flair which fits nicely in the old storefront of the McLemore Plantation. They discovered an alternative to Annie Sloan paint and I've been seeing numerous posts on their Facebook page showing their before and after projects, as well as those of their customers. So I decided to try it for myself.

Jewell's room contains the furniture I got when I was about ten years old. I used it until I went to college, and then my mother loaned it to Nancy Itson for her daughter, Haley, to use. Nancy returned it to Mama when Haley went to college and it sat in my parent's basement for a number of years. When we built our home in 2005, it came back to live with us. It had a pretty yellow finish with pink and green flowers...at least it was pretty 35 years ago. Over time it has aged, but not in a good way. Plus, the yellow was restrictive when trying to decorate. So I asked permission to paint it. Mama was a little hesitant, but said OK. (Yes, I still ask my mother's permission on things from time to time!)

You can see that several drawer pulls have broken and it is looking a little tired.

It was very pretty in it's day, and I knew that with a little TLC, it would be beautiful again!

I picked up the paint last week and got a quick tutorial from Adrienne on how to use it. I will admit that I was not looking forward to the process. I do not enjoy painting. Sewing, yes. Painting...not on your life. Until now! I started Sunday night thinking that I would do one coat, let it dry overnight and add another the next day. I hoped to be able to add the tea stain Monday night and then begin the next piece on Tuesday. Adrienne had told me the paint dried really fast, but I didn't want to rush it. Well, guess what? By the time I got the first coat finished, it was ready for the second! It dries that fast. So what should have taken a week to finish, took me two days. TWO DAYS, people!

I bought two quarts of the paint ($32 each) and one quart of the tea stain (also $32) just to be sure I had enough. I did. And then some. I painted two coats and tea stained the following pieces...one large dresser with mirror, three-drawer chest and a full-sized headboard. I had barely put a dent in the tea stain and still had over a half a quart of paint left in the FIRST can, so I painted two 24x30 picture frames and Jewell's wooden trash can. I still had paint left, so I grabbed the two oval mirrors from above the kids' bathroom sinks and slapped some paint on them. Then the mirrors from my bathroom were next. I still have about an inch of paint in the can! I think I'm gonna ask Adrienne to swap the unopened can for a different color. (I want to paint my kitchen table chairs black...) This stuff is amazing! Drumroll, please...

Isn't she beautiful?

I found the hardware half price at Hobby Lobby last week (whoot, whoot!),

and I think it looks incredible!

As I said, I still have a few projects to finish before I show you her completed room redo, but I wanted to give you a little taste to tide you over. Or maybe it's more of a tease. Regardless, I wanted to share this incredible product with you because I HEART...Farmhouse Paint!

I need a few more days to complete the room. I still have to make the curtains and a cornice board. I have also bought crown molding to add and I need to paint and install closet doors. (Long story. I'll share this story when you get the final pictures.) It's raining here... a lot...so I'm not sure if I'll get the molding and doors painted and done before Jewell gets back from camp, but I'm heading right now to the sewing machine to start on the curtains. Stay tuned...